2014 Season Preview: Northern Suburbs

by Paul Cook –

2012 was the most successful 1st grade performance in years for Northern Suburbs, going within one match of the Grand Final when they went down to eventual champions Sydney University. Stoic defence was the bedrock of the side and they appeared to have the platform from which the addition of only a few subtle layers were required to get them to their first title decider since 1998.

The ramifications of that success – in terms of the team’s ongoing progress as a unit – is that it puts the players in the shop window, and pretty soon, Shoremen were a wanted commodity. As such, 2013 proved to be disruptive, with players who were on the fringes of Super Rugby squads coming and going and leaving coach Scott Fava with plenty of selection headaches.

Add to that the loss of their 2012 kingpin, Dave Harvey, to Warringah and a side that had promised so much before a ball was kicked, effectively stuttered it’s way through the year before Easts ended their season in the finals. Rumours of heavy player movement in the 2014 off-season have led to whispered concerns for Norths’ finals aspirations this time out. Rugby News sat down with Scott Fava to find out straight from the horse’s mouth how they are travelling down at North Sydney Oval…

Last season – on paper at least – was a step back from an impressive 2012 but how did you see it?

“Last year for us was a very disruptive year because of all our rep players. It was very hard to manage and the consistency and momentum of having the same players on the field didn’t come to us until probably the last three rounds and then we were able to grow some momentum going into the finals. Realistically, that wasn’t enough and we didn’t have a stronghold on the team that we wanted and we just couldn’t get those combinations going for that semi-final against Easts.

“I learned a lot about coaching in 2013 in regards to how to better manage your group in the face of that adversity with so many representative players coming in and out of your team but also managing the guys underneath as well and how their attitude changed when they were bouncing between 1’s and 2’s all the time. It wasn’t great at the time because you get frustrated but we still made the semis, which was good.”

Norths seemed like a side that could trouble anyone on their day but struggled to find consistency?

“We had a lot of good individual players, it was just getting them to all play together. If we’d clicked and got that consistency, we would have had a very good team to go into the finals with.”

Scott Fava is starting his fourth year in charge
at Northern Suburbs – Photo: SPA Images

Points were a problem – only the bottom two sides Gordon and Penrith scored fewer across the season – was that down to attitude, execution, a change of personnel, inconsistent selections or other teams working you out?

“It was down to the execution. The hard thing with guys coming in and out is that the guys coming in from professional programs come in with different terminologies and a way to play the game so it becomes quite hard to get your message across. The guys from the Sevens program had different terminologies and had to re-learn ours and the Super Rugby guys were the same and in some cases, they didn’t work hard enough to acquire all the knowledge that was needed to execute our game plan properly.

“Subsequently, our attack wasn’t where it needed to be because of that lack of combinations. You need to have a fairly consistent 15 on the field week in, week out to build your attacking play so that it becomes a habit and to enable you to become adaptable. If you try to be adaptable with a new line up every week, the guys don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”

Dave Harvey left for Warringah, Mitch Walton to Gordon and the arrival of Scott Daruda didn’t quite reach the heights you would have hoped for – is it fair to say Norths lacked a little bit of direction from flyhalf throughout the year?

“Yeah, definitely. I think Scotty would put his hand up and say that he didn’t prepare well enough for the year and he just wasn’t able to give us the direction we needed. I’m not sure he ever really settled after moving over from Manly because he had a lot of mates from their club so we wish him the best now that he’s made the move back.”

You appear to have lost a few players in the off-season, particularly in the backs, can you convert that turnover of players to your advantage in terms of a fresh start or will it be a challenge to overcome?

“We have lost key guys out of our backline in particular from last year to other clubs and we’ve also got Michael Dowsett down at the Brumbies while Pete Schuster, Cam Clark and Sam Myers are in the Aussie Sevens program and we won’t see them at all. But that’s what we’re here for, that’s what we hope all our guys can aspire to, whether it’s professional contracts in Australia, overseas or through Sevens. That’s what club rugby should be, the springboard to the next level so we’ll have pretty much a whole new first grade backline but that’s a new challenge.

“We haven’t recruited many, we’re basically relying on our 2012 colts team that made the Grand Final. A lot of those guys have now populated our grade sides and we hope that they’re going to be the next batch of stars coming through.”

There’s an earlier start to the competition this year, a couple of extra rounds and a six team finals series – are you happy with the changes?

“I still think that the way the system has been brought about in terms of the draw is just not equal as such. There was a document put out by Geoff Townsend at Gordon to show the inequality of the draw and how certain teams were playing more top four or top six sides than others. Having one full round and then a shorter round where you don’t play everyone, I’m not a fan of it. If they can reshape what they did in 2012 [a split conference after nine rounds] where the top teams play the top teams and the bottom teams play the bottom teams, I thought that worked really well and you got a lot out of it. But, it is what it is, we have to push through and play 18 weeks straight and make it work for us.”

Northern Suburbs: Ins & Outs

The NRC looms on the horizon, what are the pros and cons of this competition for club rugby?

“I guess one of the cons is that certain Shute Shield teams feel that we should still be semi-professional but the reality is that we’re now going to be the 4th tier so it’s how we structure ourselves to be more amateur without losing the competitiveness and the ability to produce players to go to the next level. I feel that the money has got to be stripped out of the game, paying players at this level has got to stop and that any money that does flow through club rugby should be put into the club itself so we can try to create a level playing field and everyone develops players from that point of view.

“The NRC should be the competition that drives the professionalism at the next tier and what’s going to happen is that every Shute Shield team will have an input into a side in the NRC so we’re still going to have a development pathway from schoolboy rugby into colts, through 1st grade and up into the NRC and on to Super Rugby so in that sense, it’s a very good thing to have.”

With the Super Rugby final only two weeks before the Shute Shield grand final this year, those clubs with Super Rugby players will have less access to them depending on the relative success of each state. Can we expect a more level playing field across the regular season as a result?

“Definitely. Every team that has Waratahs players will see those players but they won’t see any players from the other state sides and I think that’s going to make for a much tighter competition, which is great and within that, if the Super Rugby players are going to be left to prepare for the NRC, that creates an equality across the board as well.”

What trends, if any, do you think we might see appearing in the way the game is played or approached by teams this year in regards to law interpretations – particularly at the breakdown?

“Well, there’s no doubt they want some clarity at the contest and they want to see that if the contest is on, they will allow it to happen. You’re seeing now in Super Rugby that the ruck is very messy and that’s a consequence of the attacking side not doing the right things at the contest and losing possession. It seems like the referees are rewarding the teams that are very pro-active with their attack, teams that want to use the ball and clear it quickly from the rucks and if they do that then they’re penalising the defending side for being offside or having a crack at the ruck when they shouldn’t be, so they want to create a more free-flowing game.”

A positional change for Ben Matwijow in 2014 might
see him earn that elusive Super Rugby contract
Photo: SPA Images

Players to watch out for in 2014?

“A player that I constantly mention as one that could go to Super Rugby is Ben Matwijow. He was terrific last year and he’s been so close to getting that break but just hasn’t been able to get it across the line yet. He’s going to be making a positional change this year, into the backrow, which should allow his running game to come to the fore with a bit more space and hopefully, that will be the key to him getting that opportunity at the next level.

“Our whole backrow is going to be really strong. Will Miller is now concentrating on the 15s game so he’s out of the Aussie Sevens program, we’ve got Michael Wells who was the Australian U20s Player of the Year and then Ben Matwijow so I think we’ll see a lot of good stuff out of those guys. We’ve also got Ben Whittaker full-time now, he’s come out of the Force program and I think Mitch Walton coming back is a very good thing too, he’ll do a really good job for us.”

What is a successful season for Norths this year – are the finals a realistic target given the number of changes or is it more a case of grooming a lot of new guys to build for the future?

“The difficulty of where we lay is that a lot of our high-end guys have moved on and we’re trying to rebuild through a group of new guys that will probably take one or two years to really get used to 1st grade rugby. We’ve got a lot of good players in certain positions but as a whole, we don’t yet have that class side we had in 2012. Semi-finals are always a minimum but we’re going to have to really build performance on performance this year so it’s really going to be a bit of a development year from our point of view. If we can pinch a top six spot and put the same team on the field, you never know what can happen in finals footy so that’s what we’re trying to achieve.”